Beauty school cop outs: jamilla paul’s diary

Rochdale salon owner Jamilla Paul is fast becoming a familiar face to the nation, mentoring the cast of new reality MTV show Beauty School Cop Outs. In an HJi exclusive, Jamilla is sharing the secrets from the set – read the latest installment of her show diary below…

What am I going to do with Jeremy? You’ll remember that he’s turned into the housemate from hell and is upsetting everyone, even Tara, with his attitude and dogged determination to sleep with all the girls - bar Scarlett. I threw him out for a while, but he hasn’t learned a thing. This week’s episode showed him returning to the house. What it didn’t show were the hours of conversation we had, where I tried to talk some sense into him. We discussed professionalism and responsibility. I’ve never had to have this conversation before with any of my Jamilla Paul staff, but I have colleagues in the industry who have. Sometimes it’s worth talking yourself hoarse in the office to try to persuade a youngster set on self-destruction to reflect on their behaviour. Some of those youngsters have grown up to be amazing hairdressers. But sometimes, in your gut, you know it’s just a waste of time. I felt Jeremy needed a longer lesson if he was to gain any insight into how unacceptable his behaviour is, but at the end of the day he was allowed back. I wasn’t happy, but I was willing to give him a second chance. One thing I did find out when we talked was his ambition is to open a total service male salon. I thought some responsibility would help him grow so I set up a pop-up salon for men where the cast would offer waxing, hairdressing and massage. I even did a bit of marketing to pull in the clients. You’ll notice I didn’t let them anywhere near my own salon! It was quite a realistic salon environment. Most of the others took it seriously, trying to service the clients in a professional and appropriate way. Not Jeremy. I arrived after a few hours to see how they were doing. I’ve never seen so many furious, dissatisfied customers. Jeremy, as the manager, was totally mismanaging it. His salon would go bust on the first day. But it did give me an opportunity to show the others how to deal with disappointed clients. How you must never be defensive. How listening calmly is crucial, keeping in check any negative body language. How the answer is seeking a solution, not trying to avoid responsibility. Sadly, I don’t think Jeremy listened much. Away from the stress that is Beauty School Cop Outs, things are going well with my new venture. It’s almost ready to launch and as a dry run for the big opening, we got involved in a Movember event on Sunday, shaving 10 now-moustacheless men. We had to be quick, but it’s hard when you are all having such fun. I wanted to enjoy myself. You know what it’s like - heads down now ‘til Christmas. I’m booked up every day, including Sundays, until the evening of 24 December. I’ve no idea when I’ll get time to buy the boys their Christmas presents.